[JURIST] Top UN officials Friday condemned Israel, the Palestinians and Lebanese Hezbollah militants for intentionally inflicting civilian casualties on one another contrary to international humanitarian law as violence continued to escalate [ABC report] in the Middle East, with Israel stepping up military action against Lebanese targets and Hezbollah militants attacking
[read more]

[JURIST] The Tennessee Supreme Court [official website] on Friday dismissed [ruling, PDF] a challenge [press release] brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [official website] to a proposed constitutional amendment [PDF] that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The Court held that the ACLU
[read more]

[JURIST] A legal advisor to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko [official website; JURIST news archive] said Friday that the plan of Yushchenko's political rival and former Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yanukovych [BBC profile], to directly nominate a candidate to serve as prime minister could constitute an illegal seizure of power. Ukraine
[read more]

[JURIST] Belgrade prosecutors filed criminal charges against ten Serbs on Friday, accusing them of hiding indicted war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] from authorities, according to Belgrade radio station B92 [media website]. The charges say the accused aided Mladic with the knowledge that he is
[read more]

[JURIST] Accusations against Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees made in declassified documents contain basic factual errors and easily-refuted claims, the Boston Globe reported Friday. After reviewing declassified records, Globe journalists uncovered a number of simple mistakes that they said raised "questions about whether the US military has thoroughly investigated
[read more]

[JURIST] Indian officials have named three suspects in Tuesday's Mumbai train bombings [BBC report] that killed some 180 people [Mumbai Police casualty list] in seven different coordinated blasts after authorities detained 350 people for questioning [JURIST report] Thursday. The suspects - Sayyad Zabiuddin and Zulfeqar Fayyaz named Thursday and a
[read more]

[JURIST] Chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte [official profile] was unceremoniously cut off at a Friday hearing for seven Bosnian Serbs indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] in connection with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre when she began a speech memorializing the
[read more]

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling that struck down Nebraska's ban on same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. A federal judge struck down the ban [JURIST report] last May, ruling that it interferes with the rights of gay couples and also with
[read more]

[JURIST] Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin [official profile] said Thursday that the United Nations does not have the authority to compel Serbia on the status of Kosovo, and that the two parties need to reach a negotiated agreement on the territory. Churkin reportedly told the UN Security Council [official website]
[read more]

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts [OYEZ profile] on Thursday expressed skepticism at the idea of allowing television cameras into Supreme Court proceedings, saying that the justices are concerned that cameras could have an "adverse impact" on the Court's functioning. Roberts reminded advocates of televised Supreme Court sessions
[read more]

[JURIST] The highest-ranking lawyers from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines weighed in on how terror detainees should be judged during a Thursday Senate Armed Services Committee hearing [witness list] on the impact of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld [text]. The military lawyers pressed for an approach informed by the Uniform
[read more]

[JURIST] Sarajevo's Canton Court sentenced former Bosnian Army soldier Samir Bejtic to 14 1/2 years in prison Thursday for killing Bosnian Serbs [Balkan Peace report] in 1993 during the 1992-95 Bosnian war [timeline]. A member of the Sarajevo-based Tenth Mountain Brigade of the Bosnian army led by Bosnian Muslim Musan
[read more]

[JURIST] Saudi Arabia would like to have all of its nationals held at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] returned to Saudi custody within one year, Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al-Faisal [official profile] said Thursday. Approximately 95 of the over 400 Guantanamo
[read more]

[JURIST] Efrain Rios Montt [Wikipedia profile], a former Guatemalan dictator, has called Spanish National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz's order for Montt's arrest last week [JURIST report] unfounded, insisting that he did not know of any crimes against humanity committed by his military officials during Guatemala's brutal 36-year civil war [Globalsecurity.org
[read more]

[JURIST] A New Jersey state jury in Atlantic City found Merck [corporate website] not liable Thursday for a woman's heart attack, saying that Merck adequately warned doctors [Merck press release] of the health risks from the company's painkiller Vioxx [Merck Vioxx Information Center website; JURIST news archive]. In what was
[read more]

[JURIST] JURIST is back online after a major power failure in central Pittsburgh [Post-Gazette report] early Thursday knocked out power to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and surrounding campus buildings. JURIST's staff dispersed to remote locations during the downtime, researching and reporting the day's national and international legal
[read more]